Difficult six months for industry

The first six months of 2011 have not been kind to South Africa’s fruit export industry, according to Safmarine’s newly appointed Reefer Executive, John Mac Donald. “Growers have had to contend with unfavourable weather conditions, including extreme heat, heavy rain, hail and flooding while shippers have been negatively impacted by a strong rand and tough competition from other markets. “The high bunker fuel prices in 2011 have also contributed to increased pressure on all parties’ bottom line, compounding an already difficult season. Not surprisingly, container volumes for fruit exports were down for the first six month of 2011, compared to 2010.” Mac Donald, who succeeded Greg Rohrs as Safmarine’s Reefer Executive in June this year, says the industry also had to accommodate poor schedule reliability at certain times on certain services as a result of the implementation of the new Navis IT system at the Durban Container Terminal (DCT). Overall, the highly competitive conditions experienced in South Africa’s traditional markets have encouraged South African fruit exporters to look elsewhere, particularly the Middle East. Says Mac Donald: “While volumes to northern Europe are down, year on year, we have seen an opposite trend in the Africa and Far East markets, and exports to the Med and North America are showing a positive growth trend.” Mac Donald – who has been involved with Safmarine’s reefer business for the past 14 years – heads a highly experienced Safmarine reefer team that comprises Charlie De Cooker as National Reefer Capacity/Operations Manager (with more than 35 years with Safmarine); Jaco Visagie as National Reefer Manager/Key Account Owner and Maria Webster, National Reefer Import/Export Manager. Together the team have over 67 years of service with Safmarine. “I am excited to be at the helm of this team, a team which believes in the Safmarine way of doing business and which is determined to go the extra mile to understand what our customers need from us and to do whatever we can to deliver on those expectations.”